Surgical implants commonly utilize one or more types of fasteners to secure the implants in a desired position in the body of a human or animal. Many implants utilize bone screws, bone nails or anchoring blades to anchor the implants to bone, for example. Bone screws can be anchored to bone by driving the bone screws into holes prepared in the bone using a screw driver designed for surgical applications.
Implant components, such as bone fasteners and bone plates, can be very small, making it difficult to handle them during surgery. It is important that these components be securely attached to instruments during insertion, so that they do not detach from the insertion instrument and drop into an incision. Because of their is sharp features, many components present a serious risk of internal injury if dropped into an incision. Moreover, it can be very difficult to retrieve implant components that are dropped in an incision, due to their relatively small size. Retrieval of a dropped implant component can result in delay and complications in a surgical procedure.